Tag Archives: Family

We have had a wonderful Christmas weekend. Nana and PawPaw John arrived Friday night for a visit.

Christmas Eve day, they took Cady to see the new Chipmunk movie, or Alvin and the Ship as she called it. She loved it. That left just Hadley, Jason and myself to bum around the house. Hadley needed to rest up for the excitement of the coming night, so she fell asleep on Jason’s lap.

How precious is she? I really think she is working on her molars or a growth spurt, maybe both. All she has wanted to do is sleep and eat (I don’t blame her, though).

Saturday night, we had a fabulous Christmas Eve dinner(Prime Rib, creamed spinach, twice baked sweet potatoes and more!) that Jason and I collaborated on. Afterwards, we headed out in the rain to look at a few light displays. When we got back, Cady and I made some reindeer food and sprinkled it in the yard for Santa’s reindeer. Then all good little girls went to bed, and Santa’s elves went to work.

All Cady asked for was a Dora kitchen. She already had a garage sale special, and I felt like if we were going to get a new one that we should get an upgrade. So we searched and search and found one we really liked that had great reviews. When we went to purchase it, we saw these little appliances, and decided we should get those as well.

Jason and I had actually put together the kitchen for the girl’s the day before during naptime. We stored it in the garage under a blanket. So all we had to do was bring it in and set their appliances out.

After we decided the display was perfect, we partook of cookies and milk and headed to bed.

I don’t know if the girls could have been more excited than I was. I was looking so forward to seeing Cady’s reaction. This year has been so awesome because Cady is so into Christmas. And her reaction did not disappoint. She was so excited!

While Cady and Hadley checked out the kitchen and all the goodies from Santa, I put the finishing touches on some baked french toast to stick in the oven while we opened gifts. The girls tore into all their gifts. Jason and I did too! We ate a yummy breakfast. We lounged and played with all our loot. Naps have been taken, and Chinese food is on the agenda for tonight. Pretty much a perfect Christmas weekend!

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We drove the 8 hours to Arkansas on Hadley’s actual birthday. We arrived at Nana’s house and Hadley opened her first gifts.

Cady helped.

What a cute little Birthday Girl!

The following Sunday, we threw Hadley a birthday party attended by our family and closest friends. I think First birthdays shouldn’t be too over the top, so we kept it small and simple. It was perfect. I had been planning a Nursery Rhyme themed party probably since before Hadley was born. I had a ton of cute ideas. Then I got into the logistics of the party. We decided to have it at a park in our hometown. A park means outside. In November. Yeah…. I’m a little crazy. Really though, it was the best option. They have these really nice pavilions, and most of them have fireplaces inside. Possible cold weather. Fireplaces. S’mores just seemed such a natural choice. So the Nursery Rhyme theme was out the window and “One is S’MORE fun!” was in.

I decided against going real theme-y with her outfit. Or even getting a “birthday shirt” I got her something she can wear again (as long as it fits) that would be appropriate if it was cold.

For the S’more theme we obviously had the makings of S’mores. But not just your plain old marshmallows, graham crackers and chocolates. I found 7 or 8 different flavors of marshmallows, several graham cracker flavors, and I grabbed a few different kinds of chocolates. I made a S’mores bar for everyone to put together their own gourmet S’mores.

But you can’t have a birthday party without cakes/cupcakes. Continuing with the theme, a local bakery was able to whip up some (DELICIOUS) S’more cupcakes, and a smash cake for Hadley.

Hadley, being the food lover that she is, had no problem digging right into her smash cake.

Even though she loved it so much, she was sweet and willing to share.

Cake = HUGE success

I, unfortunately, didn’t get many pics of our guests. Poppa was there

So, was my BFF, Jenny. She brought Hadley’s bff, Charlotte, with her.

The girls’ cousin, Jonathan was there. He and Cady got along very well and had a great time together.

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We have had a really great Labor Day weekend so far and it isn’t even over yet!

The fun started early for the girls and me. We got some special visitors Thursday night. Grandma and PawPaw Wayne won airfare to our area, so we got to spend the weekend with them.

Thursday night we celebrated a great Bears win over Henderson. We are all really excited about the upcoming season.

Friday, Grandma and PawPaw Wayne got to watch Cady’s dance class. I think this year is going to be really fun for Cady because not only does she have Kate, Charlotte and Kendall in class with her, but this year she has some of her school friends in class too. We were excited to find out Brooklyn and Lily, both great friends from school, are in class with her.Brooklyn is such a sweetie and wanted a hug

The rest of the day was spent on naps, dinner and a little shopping. Hadley is (hopefully) cutting some major teeth and has been a little tough to handle. She and I spent the last part of dinner that night in the car because she has developed an awesome air raid siren noise. It is a lot of fun (sarcasm font?). But she is still pretty much the cutest thing around, so I guess we’ll keep her, air raid noise and all

Saturday, we woke up and headed down to Kemah. It was actually a really nice day for it. Tropical Storm Lee didn’t bring the rain we so desperately need here, but He did bring some wind and cooled things down quite a bit. It was pretty pleasant which is the first time I can say that in weeks.

Hadley hung out in the stroller

While Cady rode some rides with Grandma

I had to buy Hadley a hat at one of the little shops on the boardwalk because I forgot hers at home. The selection was limited, so a far too big baseball cap was pretty much our only choice.

we had lunch at The Aquarium, so while we waited for food Cady looked at all the fish.

And for once, I remembered to get a pic with Grandma and all of us girls.

We had a great time. Today we are headed to an Astro’s game, so I *might* have some pictures to post from that later.

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The day didn’t start out like I hoped. Cady woke up around 6:30 and crawled into bed with Jason and me (I would just like to point out that means Hadley slept past 5 am! WOOHOO!). She ended up falling asleep while snuggling with me, which is absolutely unheard of. She woke up about 30 minutes later and was just not acting like herself. She ended up having an accident because her tummy was upset and while she was using the bathroom she vomited. So I was concerned, but she didn’t have a fever or anything. She vomited once more. But as soon as she ate breakfast she was back to herself. It was so weird. No more tummy or vomiting issues at all. No fever. Her illness lasted all of 45 minutes.

I am so glad she got over whatever the issue was quickly because she was so excited to see fireworks that night that I would have hated to keep her home.

We went to dinner at one of our favorite places. It is located in a little outdoor shopping area by the lake. They had a band set up and we brought our chairs and listened after dinner. Usually the splashpad is on, but since we are in an extreme drought right now water conservation is necessary so no splashpad. 😦

When it started getting dark we headed over to the golf course and found our spot on one of the tee boxes to watch the fireworks. Both girls enjoyed them very much.

My little firecrackers had a fabulous Fourth.

Someone has a major Nana hangover this morning, but luckily the best cure is in store. SCHOOL! I’m not sure who is more excited, Me or Cady.

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Cady’s and Hadley’s Nana came to see them over the Fourth of July weekend. She had one request: to visit the Zoo.

We made sure to get there as soon as it opened to try to beat the heat and some crowds. In all the time we have spent at the Zoo we have never been inside the Aquarium house. It is easy to miss since it is right as you enter and you have to fight the Zoo paparazzi to get there.

Hadley was checking things out

Cady really enjoyed looking at all the Nemo fish too

Jason and I thought these jellyfish were pretty cool. Jason thinks we need one for the house.

Cady wanted to visit her favorite part: the monkey area

My two monkeys

We had to visit my favorite part: elephants. The babies have gotten so big. There was a zoo keeper at the elephant barn and she said Tupelo is a noisy baby. She was not kidding around. Se was roaring like a lion when we were there. Se was playing and having a really good time. Tupelo and her mom were the only ones in the big outdoor area and she was taking full advantage of running around and having a great time.

The zoo has a new African Forest exhibit. In it, is a 4D theater and it just happened to be showing a Dora and Diego 4D movie while we were there. Cady was so excited!

It was very cool. The “4th D” was interactive stuff. Bubbles were blown and we had water splashed on us. There was even banana smell when they showed a banana on-screen.

Everyone looked awesome in their 4D glasses

I’ve never been a fan of 3D movies but it was hilarious to watch Cady try to grab things that came close to her. She was cracking us up. Poor little Hadley didn’t get to wear any glasses. I bet she thought we were crazy for watching a blurry movie.

We also saw some Chimps in the African Forest. One even got out of the cage!

Oh wait… that’s just Cady. 😉

We ate lunch on the patio near the giraffe enclosure. The new area at the zoo is really cool and it is nice to sit and watch the giraffes.

There is even the opportunity to feed them lettuce. I wasn’t sure she would actually do it, I mean, look how big that guy is compared to her.

But I forget that she has no fear.

She loved it!

We finished our zoo trip with a ride on the carousel before we went home.

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This past weekend we took a trip down the coast and visited some friends. They live just a very short drive from the beach so we decided to spend a day on the sand.

Cady had never been in anything but a pool, so it was a whole new experience for her. She was either going to love it or hate every second of it.

Checking it out the first time with Jason

Luckily, she LOVED it. And that could be an understatement. She may have loved it more than she has ever loved anything in her entire life.

It was windy and the water was pretty rough. Did she mind the sand or salt in her eyes? Nope. She won’t put her face in the pool, but a huge wave going over her head? Bring it on! She is a serious beach baby.

We had a pretty sweet setup. I’ve never been to a beach were you could drive on the beach and just park right on the shore. We parked the cars, set up a gazebo tent in between and parked our chairs in the shade.

How did Hadley feel about the beach?

That sums up her initial reaction. And by the way, the child owns a swimsuit, but she peed on it. So we stayed true to our hillbilly roots and just let her hang out in her diaper while it dried.

We really did have some perfect weather. It wasn’t too hot, while the wind was pretty strong, it kept things cool enough that it was pleasant.

Hadley eventually warmed up to the idea of the water after some food and a nice nap.

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We had a fabulous Memorial Day weekend. We traveled up to Branson. We stayed at a great condo with some of my family. All together there are 6 girls ages 9, 6, 4, 3, 2 and 6 months. It is so hard to get all 6 together. I am so glad we did because we had too much fun.

I didn’t take any pics because that’s that I do (or don’t do) when I’m home. Luckily, my fabulous sister-in-law did and she took some awesome pics.

Cady after some serious swimming and an even more serious nap

Hadley had a captive audience much of the weekend. She is so lucky to have such great older cousins to look up to.

What is Memorial Day weekend without some homemade ice cream? Cady was a fan.

Double trouble. Cady and Addi. We are so in trouble.

Grandma wanted a group picture. So we got matching shirts (Thanks Becca!). It wasn’t easy. Here is an outtake

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The girls and I followed Jason into our bedroom while he was doing his little rituals after coming home from work. He snapped this picture and I love it so much. Do not let Jason ever tell you otherwise, he loves every second of being surrounded by the three of us.

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So sorry that I have disappeared. Blogging has not topped my priority list. But we are getting into a great routine and Jason has been a great help. As I type Hadley is sleeping next to me and Jason and Cady are playing hide and seek, her new favorite game.

We’ve really just been trying to get used to our new normal. Last week our first full week by ourselves during the day. I think we did pretty good. Cady made it to dance class and school. This weekend we were able to do some Christmas shopping. Hadley and I even got some done on our own today.

A couple of weekends ago we got newborn pictures taken of Hadley. No, we didn’t do this for Cady, but Cady also had hundreds of pictures taken of her in the first few days of her life. Hadley probably only has 30 or so. Picture taking has also suffered along with blogging. So Hadley’s little modeling session makes up for it in a way. The photographer we used (Mulberry Dreams) did a fabulous job. Hadley was a bit more alert than we had hoped, but Tiffany still captured some amazing shots. These are just a few of my very favorites. I am so in love with all of them.

I promise I will definitely be back for Cady’s monthly post and for Hadley’s very first monthly post (it has gone by so fast). But I also hope to have some holiday stuff to post soon too.